I hate to be “that guy”, but I have some wood and I can’t ID it for the life of me.

I’ll start with the first two pics. I got both of these pieces (and similar ones, as well as boxes of 12/4 mahogany cutoffs) from the same garage. A man was selling off his father’s old stuff. I’m guessing they’re a rosewood. They look similar to each other, but not enough to make me think they’re the same kind. Both are pretty heavy for their size and feel very slick.. like they have some natural oils to them.

Last but not least, I’m building a bench from some old barn board in the rafters in my shop. I took down a nice piece and ran a cut-off through the planer, then resawed it. It was a fairly light wood. I thought it might be pine or cedar at first, but lacks the smell of either. It smells a little more pungent then either of those. The wood could be 150+ years old for all I know.

I’ve checked hobbit house, but I’m clueless as to what these might be. Any help would be appreciated. I know the camera sucks and I can take more pics later if need.

You know.. as I posted these pics, sapele crossed my mind for #2.. for some reason, it didn’t strike me as sapele when I held it.. Maybe it just looks too dark when I hold it. Does sapele get darker with UV exposure?

Not sure about the uv effect. When I see it in the store it has a good color range to it. From brown to a reddish brown. Its the striations or ribbons for lack of a better term, that remind me of sapele. But mahagony has them too along with big color differences.

supersretch #1-is rosewood, #2- is sapele, and no it doesn’t get darker, but it will get lighter with uv exposure and turn brown instead of the red’er tone. don’t know what the others are; but if i had a guess, it might be clear alder
i tried…

@dak – not sure what you’re getting at, but he’s catching up to Brian Wilson.

#1 is not freshly planed. The problem with rosewood is that there’s so much variation, it could be from any corner of the world. Just don’t tell the justice dept I have it..
#2 has very high iridescence. I’ll match it against some pics next time I grab it.

#3.. I’m not sure. There’s every sort of wood in the barn board I have. The first pic of it is freshly planed about 1/16” and the 2nd pic is freshly resawn (that wood slicer went through it like butter). There are a few nails in the larger pieces and the wood around them is significantly blackened. The nails are square, to give you a sense of the age.

@hawkdriver – no snow yet.. little bit of a frost last night tho.

@sawkerf – A couple other smaller pieces have significant splits through them. They’ll probably only be good for pen blanks or accents

Chrisstef- The wood (especially that darker bit) has the same grain texture as walnut. My boss suggested butternut, but the rings are too subtle. I was thinking maybe beech or birch? Keep in mind that the wood is really really light.. Feels like cedar.

It was very weathered… also a few bug holes, but not the heavy rings that I’m used to seeing in chestnut. I can get a pic if you’d like to see